Future Group rolls out expansion for Tier 2 and 3 cities

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Sep 1, 2017

Looking to source 65 percent of its sales from private labels in the coming five years, Future Group has announced that it will be expanding its presence in smaller and rural retail markets.

In order to achieve this target, Future Group’s Future Retail will open more of their Heritage, Easyday, and Nilgiri stores in the south of the country. The business’ main store, Big Bazaar currently has 287 retail outlets across the country but these are mostly in larger cities and so it is the aforementioned three stores that will drive Future Group’s Tier 2 and 3 retail expansion.

Currently, there are 120 Heritage stores, 414 Easyday stores, and 154 Nilgiri stores across the country and this figure is set to swiftly rise. Sales from private labels accounts for 35 percent of the brand’s total sales and so they are looking to almost double that amount through their planned expansion.

C P Toshniwal, Future Retail’s Chief Financial Officer, said of their expansion plan: “Big Bazaar is our flagship store with highest penetration, but for smaller towns the company is looking at opening smaller format retail stores.” Toshniwal went on to say: “The stated target of the group is to increase this in the next five years to about 65 per cent. Opening smaller format stores will increase penetration and help establish the brands further.” Many brands are in the process of expanding into Tier 2 and 3 cities as brand consciousness grows there and these smaller markets are fast making up large sales quotas for many Indian brands.